Part V – Lake Wawanakwa Under Heather

The shriek of a whistle pierced the air like a knife, making the campers wince.

"Will you quit it?!" Duncan snapped. "We're all here already!"

Heather raised an eyebrow at this and blew harshly on the whistle one more time for good measure. Then she cleared her throat and smiled. "Well, now that I'm leader," she drew out the word, watching him wince. "I thought I should lay down some ground rules."

"Ground rules?" Noah smirked skeptically. "Such as what?"

Heather smiled sweetly, although her eyes sparked hostility meant for him only. "I don't want us to turn into what Chris had done, so I drew up some very important rules that no one will be allowed to break. First of all, the producers don't want to fund us anymore, so we will be on our own until the end of the session. Chris pitted us against each other when he was running the show, but now we will work together with everything. Everyone will have their own job, and their own weight to pull, equally, and if someone doesn't do their part, they will be severely punished. Understood?"

The majority of the campers looked impressed with Heather's revelations, and she fought to hide a smirk, despite the icy glares of Noah, LeShawna, and Duncan. She continued: "There exact ground rules are written out in the mess hall, which you can all go look at later, but first of all, we should hand out the jobs."

"Can I do all the laundry?" Beth asked. "I'm really good at doing it by hand."

"Why not?" Heather replied with a smile. "That would be useful. Now, we need food, so Trent, you can fish. LeShawna did well in the hunting challenge, and she can hunt and gather in the woods. Seeing as Duncan is the only one of us who knows how to hijack a vehicle, he can drive the boat and bring Trent out to deeper waters. Noah, your job is to keep the north half of the campgrounds clean, and DJ, you do the south half. Cody, you did well in the cooking challenge, so you're the new chef. And Lindsay, your job is to stay on the beach and keep an eye out for Chris in case he returns."

Instant chaos.

"Well, excuse me!" LeShawna retorted sharply, her hands on her hips. "When did I say once that I would be a hunter? In case you didn't notice, the hunting challenge involved hitting people with paintballs."

"This is essentially the same. Imagine the animals are people, and their blood is the paint," Heather replied apathetically. LeShawna gaped at her, incredulous.

"Heather?" Cody piped up nervously. "Um, I can cook, but I really hate it. Can I do something else?"

"I could substitute for him," Noah cut in quickly, before Heather could respond. "I am considerably competent in the culinary arts, and I harbor no negative feelings towards it."

Heather rolled her eyes. "Someone like you in charge of our food? Dream on. You'd probably poison us all, so Cody will just have to deal with it."

"Uh, gorgeous?" Duncan put in. "I have no complaint about my assignment, but seriously, Lindsay is watching for Chris? What kind of job is that?"

"Have you ever talked to Lindsay? Personally, I don't think she could handle anything more mentally taxing."

"Huh?" Lindsay replied, her eyes widening. Stereotypical dumb blonde or not, she got the gist of that statement.

"Okay, then," Duncan continued. "But what about your job. You didn't mention anything, sweetie."

Heather rolled her eyes. "That's obvious. I, of course, am in charge of supervising all of you. We don't want anyone slacking -," She glared pointedly at Noah. "- or otherwise not benefitting our new Lake Wawanakwa. Any more questions?"

"Yeah," Lindsay piped up. "What did you mean by that earlier?"

"Oh, nothing, Lindsay," she smiled condescendingly at her, then looked up sharply. "Well, if that's it, move out! We have a new island to run."

As they turned to leave, Cody hurried to catch up with Noah. "Hey!" he called, and Noah turned. "That was really nice of you," he said, falling into step beside him. "I mean, to offer to switch with me like that."

"It was no bother," Noah replied, but his eyes were surprisingly dark. He sighed. "Heather is not to be trusted. I believe she will become Chris' reincarnation."

"Do you really think so?" Cody asked quietly, but in a tone that seemed to suggest he, too, was beginning to feel the same way.

Noah glanced over and saw in his expression a sadness full of hurt and uncertainty. Concerned, Noah rested his hand on Cody's shoulder comfortingly and gave him a small, uncharacteristic smile. Cody returned it weakly, but faltered.

"I – I wish Gwen was here," he whispered.

Noah flinched as a raw pang pierced his chest, but he refused to let Cody see his pain. "Yeah," he agreed finally. "She had the right ideas."